The Best Laid Plans
by Lala to the power of 2
Summary: Keith was beginning to get the feeling that Lance had never had any intentions of taking Allura on this date in the first place.


Keith wasn't sure what to make of the situation. It seemed straightforward enough in theory, but if it really WAS straightforward then it was easily the strangest thing Lance had ever requested of him. That anyone had asked, really, and considering that their animosity boiling off into a normal-ish friendship was only a very recent event, Keith couldn't help but be… A little confused. "So, I understand the 'Be my Valentine's date,' part," he said slowly, "it's just the ' fill in ' that I'm having trouble grasping."

Lance was anything but deterred. Just leaned casually against the wall with a grin that actually was a little bit charming and explained, "What's hard to understand? It is, according to my cell phone, Valentine's Day! I am a creature of love , Keith! Of course I'd want to celebrate it with a little romance!" He dramatically threw a hand over his forehead, crooning, "Only to be rejected! The fair princess has no appreciation of Earth culture, and so refused to join me on the super romantic plans I set up. Which leaves me in a bit of a bind here, you know?"

Keith raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how. It's not like you could have rented a limo."

Lance wove him off. "No, but that doesn't mean I didn't go out of my way, here! We're on this beautiful planet," he waved towards the wall as if to gesture to the world outside, unseen through the spaceship interior. "And I spent a whole day wandering around town to set up plans! Not to mention the work Hunk did for all this!"

"The work Hunk did?" Keith indulged.

"Yeah, it's not like I could have figured out how to make that whole picnic dinner by myself here. I mean, otherwise I could just take Hunk along on a bro date, but you can't invite someone to a date they helped set up that's just tacky." He held up a finger, "-Aaaand, before you even go there, Pidge already turned me down too, saying she already had to be Matt's prom date and she wasn't doing it again. Which is fair."

Keith sighed. "So you're seriously asking me ? To fill in for Allura on a date?" He raised an eyebrow. "For an entire night, just the two of us?" It wasn't that the idea itself sounded awful, not really. But Keith guessed if he was going to be asked out on a date by a cute guy he'd really prefer it to be a real date because the cute guy actually wanted to spend time with him.

"Well I only have enough food for two people, so. Yeah, it'd sort of have to be," Lance shrugged. "C'mooonn, Keith. We'll have a good time. I have affection in my heart and you're the only available person to take it out on."

It could be fun, sure. Or it could be a ridiculously bad idea because already has half a crush on this idiot and this seemed like a really bad way to go about ignoring the shit out of it like Keith had been banking on. "And why did Shiro say no?"

Lance blinked. "I didn't ask him. I mean, if you turn me down I guess I have to, but even taking Pidge would have been bad enough," he grimaced. "This would be like trying to take my dad out on a date or something."

It was Keith's turn to blink in surprise. If taking Pidge would have been bad enough and taking Shiro would have been like dating his father, what did that make going out with Keith? He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, tapping one finger against his forearm as he considered. If he had gone to Keith first, didn't that make Keith more datable than Shiro?

He thought about that. Shrugged. Screw it, that was good enough for him. "Okay."

For a moment, Lance didn't quite react to Keith's words. "Wait. Seriously?"

"Yeah, sure," Keith agreed easily. "As long as I wasn't your last choice. Plus if you did ask Shiro he'd probably feel bad and say yes, and while that sounds hilarious I'm pretty sure one of you would actually die from awkwardness."

Lance laughed, immediately grinning and glowing with a pleased flush. "Alright!" He cheered, even going as far as pumping a fist in the air excitedly, which seemed a little excessive to Keith. Flattering maybe, but mostly excessive. "Okay, I've got everything all set up, it'll totally sweep you off your feet!" He said quickly, eyes sparkling and using his hands to talk. "I'll pick you up at your room in three vargas, okay?"

Against his own will, Keith couldn't help but smile a little. Even it was just because he was desperate and bored, it was still nice to know Lance was excited to spend time with him.

The first thing Lance did was take him to Blue's hangar. When Keith asked why they weren't just using a much less conspicuous podship, Lance's answer was a waggle of his eyebrows and the boast, "Well how else could I show off my badass flying skills for my date? Got to start out strong and impress you, don't I?" Which was of course absurd because Lance was god awful at it. But, inefficient and downright unsafe as his technique may be he did make flying fun , and that wasn't the point then Keith didn't know what was.

Lance landed them somewhere just outside of the city, something of an empty spaceship graveyard with a wide open view of the sky. The planet they'd landed on a few weeks ago was a modern sort, reminding Keith of Earth in a lot of ways. Or maybe it was just that cities didn't get that much different the universe over, and gas stations with bright white lights were a common staple all across the galaxy. But from here it was easy to see how very unearthly this place really was, because for all the familiarity of a dark purple sky filled with stars, the way the horizon was split open by a shining green-and-red aurora behind a giant crescent-moon satellite was impressive in a way that home never had been.

A blanket was laid out on Blue's patient head, where Lance spread out a meal that looked like it had been trying to be sandwiches and gotten confused somewhere along the line. It didn't end up tasting that terrible though, and Keith found himself asking, "So, how much did Hunk help and how much of this was actually you?"

Lance didn't look offended by the question. "He supervised," he explained easily. "Told me the basics of what I could make and warned me when I was about to do something to totally screw myself."

Keith looked own at the layered vegetable meal in his hands, a little impressed against his own will. "So then, it was mostly you, still. Not bad." They continued to eat in silence for a while, oddly comfortable for the lack of communication. But that was because Keith had always preferred the quiet, and with little curiosity he asked, "So then, what's the plan here? Were you just gonna sit in silence with Allura for an hour, or have you got something for us to talk about?"

A little huff of laughter from Lance. "Not at all!" He declared grandly. "I happen to be an amazing date, thank you. His is the stage where now that my date is comfortable, I ask them about how their day went." He grinned at Keith. "SO. How was your morning?

Keith huffed a little breath of laughter through his nose. "It was pretty good, I guess. Annihilated a new level of Gladiators on the training deck."

"Oh yeah?" Lance asked with interest, sort of putting Keith on the spot.

"There's… not much to say, really." A little embarrassed and not sure why, Keith fished around for something to tell Lance. "I got their A.I. up to the level where they can switch weapons mid-battle, so now I have to watch out for projectiles at any time. It was giving me trouble at first but today I managed to take both of them out."

Lance whistled, low and impressed. "I sure couldn't take out two of those damned things, not at the level you do."

Well, why would he expect to be able to? "You're a sharpshooter anyway, if you get caught in close range combat with two enemies it's probably because one of us messed up." Keith considered for a moment, thinking about Lance's fighting style. "You could probably set up something on the training deck that'd be closer to what you actually face, some sort of… auto droid vs droid setup so you can practice providing support."

Lance blanched, sticking out his tongue. "Eugh, sounds like a pain. And since you guys are the one's I'd actually be trying to back up it makes more sense to just train with real people anyway."

Keith looked up at Lance, letting a tiny smile pull at the corner of his lips. "So then, tomorrow morning you'll join me as my backup, right?"

For a moment Lance just stared at him, fish-jawed and silent. His mouth closed with a click and a wry little smile crossed his own face, as he shrugged. "I kinda backed myself into saying yes on that one, didn't I?"

They walked into the city after that, only a fifteen minute trek from the junkyard they'd set down in. The back alleys turned to lit streets in no time, strange little vespa-like bikes littering the thin roads and weaving through scattered pedestrians like a sci-fi Rome.

They walked close to each other, not that there was really much danger of losing one another in what was a relatively sparse evening crowd, the humanoid if-slightly-alpaca-headed aliens paying them no mind as they wandered about town on their business. Keith had been paying them no mind right back, but Lance was watching each passer by with interest, people-watching in it's truest form.

"What do you suppose that guy's thinking about?" Lance asked suddenly, nodding towards an alien standing idly by the street and looking up towards the sky.

Keith frowned, uncertain how to answer, and guessed, "Uh… The sky?"

Lance made a sound that could have been a laugh or a sigh or both. "Yeah, but what about it? Is he watching the stars? Looking for a spaceship? Just looking at some building we can't see behind us?" Keith instinctively looked over his shoulder. "Maybe he's looking at the sky because he's thinking about how much he'd like to be flying through it right now."

They were passing by the man now, and Keith let one last glance linger on him as he disappeared out of sight. "You think so?"

Lance did sigh now, and it was definitely disappointed. "You're missing the point. Here, let me help you," He picked out another person on the street, nodding towards a stern-faced woman as she walked by. "I bet she's thinking about work right now. Maybe she had a really long day and only just got off, and is still thinking about all the things she has left to do tomorrow before she can relax and have the rest of her night."

Keith hummed thoughtfully, but before he could dwell on the idea Lance was already moving on. There was another man with a cell phone of some kind in his hand, hanging up a phone call with a wistful look on his furred face. "And he probably just got off the phone with his wife," Lance went on. "He hasn't seen her in a few days and all he's thinking about is how much he misses her." Somehow they'd started walking even closer to each other somewhere along the line, and Keith's shoulder bumped into Lance's while the other paladin was busy staring wistfully into the sky himself. "And he's thinking about the coffee she makes every morning, and how terrible it is. And how every morning he tries to wake up before her so he can just make it himself, and how every morning he fails and ends up drinking her terrible coffee. And he's thinking about how he can't wait to get home and have another cup of awful coffee with her tomorrow morning."

They walked in silence for moment, Keith watching Lance watch the sky. And hesitantly, Keith offered. "She doesn't like coffee." Lance glanced over at him, surprised, and Keith actively ignored the sudden flush to his cheeks to continue, "That's why it's so terrible. She drinks tea, but every morning when she gets up she starts a pot of coffee for her husband while she makes her own tea."

Lance continued to stare at him for a moment as a slow smile crawled its way across his face.

The backs of their hands continued to brush against each other as they walked. Neither of them stepped apart.

Lance wound up taking him to something that Keith could only guess was a bar based on the atmosphere and number of people with drinks in their hand. Which seemed like a particularly odd choice for a date, but when Keith glanced over at Lance he seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing, resting one hand on the small of Keith's back to lead him through to one of the far walls.

There was really no way to describe what flashed on the wall other than 'dartboard.' especially since there were, you know, darts to go with it and everything. "Alright," Lance explained with a relaxed smile as he handed Keith a small handful of said darts, "the rules are pretty obvious. Closer to the center is more points, first one to make it to 541 points wins, no they didn't tell me why they went with such a weird number. But unlike Earth, Erbanian Darts has handicaps, so if you hit a bullseye on the first or second toss you forfeit your other throws that turn, you fail to make 20 points and you get a fourth shot, and if you miss the board entirely you scratch and lose the whole game."

Keith nodded. He had a basic understanding of darts like anyone did, and figured that all the time he'd spent idly throwing and retrieving his knife had given him a halfway decent arm for aim. Of course, two hands in and Lance had already proved himself to be better than Keith at least, and the re paladin supposed that this had been another activity chosen for the sake of being able to show off. Still, Keith was having fun, and Lance wasn't even bothering to run the fact that he was better than Keith at something in his face.

"Here," Lance said, sneaking up behind Keith to press his chest to his back. He took hold of Keith's hand mid-air where it was aiming his next dart, and Keith had to freeze and let Lance gently redirect his aim because if he'd tried to throw at that moment when his heart was exploding out of his chest he'd have probably taken someone's eye out. "I can already see why you suck with a gun, you're letting go too fast." Lance drew back his arm and Keith's with it, somehow seeming to press impossibly closer to Keith's back in the process, and leaned forward enough to fit his head comfortably on Keith's shoulder. Jesus this guy was some new kinda smooth, wasn't he? Keith's face was so hot right now he could probably fry an egg on it. "You don't have much problem lining up your shots but you've got to learn to hold it." Lance's words were close enough to Keith's ear that he could swear he could feel his breath tickling the hairs on his neck, "When you let go too fast it throws off the aim you just lined up. Take a deep breath," Keith did so. "And release," with only a slight push forward Lance let go of Keith's hand, and when the dart flew out of it and hit the thin red green ring just outside the bullseye, Keith felt a laugh bubble out of his throat.

Lance looked at him curiously, and Keith had to bite back another laugh. "I had been wondering why you decided playing darts of all things was a good idea for a date." He pressed his back up against Lance meaningfully, "But you certainly had this all planned out after all, didn't you?"

It was Lance's turn to blush, finally stepping away from the warmth of Keith's body. "W-well I did say I knew what I was doing, didn't I?" He coughed to recover himself. "And ANYWAY, this isn't even the whole plan." He nodded towards the door. "There's another bar a few blocks down that's having a tournament, but I wanted to make sure you wouldn't go out there and embarrass us and figured this place would have more boards open to practice."

Against his will, Keith found himself laughing again.

They didn't win, but they did come pretty close. Second place prize turned out to be a free drink on the house, however, and since they couldn't really use that they ended up buying drinks for the team that had come in dead last and wandering off into the night. This bar had been a few blocks away from the last one, which had been far out enough from the junkyard they landed Blue in to begin with. But when they left they didn't start heading back in the direction they came from, and when Keith asked Lance's answer was beaming grin.

"I don't know why you keep doubting me, Keith. I told you I have it all planned out, didn't I?" He winked, and not long after directed them to a booth on the side of the road.

They were handed a pair of tickets by a bored-looking clerk. "Your tecycles will automatically return when the rental period ends, you can renew your rental at any of our convenient roadside booths," she recited. "If you crash your tecycle your rental period is void and you have to pay full price for a replacement."

Keith looked curiously to Lance. "What did we just rent?"

Lance waggled his eyebrows. "Ever seen the movie Tron?"

Keith shook his head. "No."

His face immediately fell. "Oh," Lance said dully. "Well that ruins like, all of the jokes I had lined up." He shrugged, and they walked a few feet out to the street to something that looked like a parking meter to insert their tickets.

The fact that a pair of those strange white motorbikes materialized like one of the castle's Gladiators was less surprising than it was just a reasonable explanation for why he'd seen so many around the city. If Keith was surprised by anything it was the fact that Lance had bothered to get two, missing out on a perfect opportunity to squeeze two people onto one of the small seats.

This too was soon explained. The instant they'd each mounted their bikes Lance's grin had turned mischievous. With a cute little quirk of his eyebrows he challenged, "Wanna race?"

Keith's answer was to grin and rev his engine.

The bikes, it turns out, were capable of going much faster than Keith had expected. The two of them zipped through the city laughing like children, not bothering to head right back to Blue in favor of spinning around through alleyways challenging one another to stupid stunts. As much as he loved Red, there was something about being able to feel the wind in your hair and stinging your eyes as you barreled through too-small-to-be-safe spaces was it's own kind of thrill, a completely different kind of danger than being sealed in two hundred tons of weaponized metal.

Eventually of course they had to meander back to the junkyard Blue was waiting in. But by then they'd spent probably a half hour just goofing off flying around town, giving Keith plenty of time to think by himself. All things considered he was more than relaxed by the time they were back inside of Blue's cockpit, happy and light with the warmth of affection blooming in his chest.

"And by now of course," Lance announced confidently as he settled into Blue's pilot seat. "I have provided my date with an enjoyable night, and it is no longer completely out of bounds to suggest that they spend the ride back sitting in my lap," he gestured to his thighs with a smarmy grin.

Keith just smiled where he was standing behind Lance's chair, leaning forward against the back of the seat so close that one of his elbows ended up resting directly on Lance's shoulder. "Hm, I suppose you're not wrong," he responded with a hint of teasing in his voice. "But your flying's already bad enough as it is, I'd hate to see how fast you crashed us if you were distracted by by me rubbing up on your lap."

Lance choked and sputtered, turning red as he fired Blue up.

When they landed back in Blue's hangar and exited her maidenly form, Lance even offered a gentlemanly hand to Keith as they climbed out of her open jaw. And at this point in the night Keith had no reason whatsoever to reject Lance, so he accepted the gesture with a barley-there smile and hopped out onto the castle floor.

"So, thank you for indulging me in a night of casual romance," Lance said as he let go of Keith's hand. "I hope being my Valentine was at least fun enough not to have been a waste of your night."

"Oh, it was definitely worth it," Keith let Lance drop his hand but didn't step away. "It was actually a really good date. Or," he scratched at a tickle on his neck, pushing a lock of hair behind his ear. "At least I thought it was a good date. Though come to think of it, a dart tournament and bike race would have been pretty strange choices if it had actually been Allura with you. In fact they almost seem like," he stepped even closer. "Like they were chosen specifically with me in mind."

Lance had the decency to look nervous. "Uh, yeah, well. I'm… Good at improvising?"

Keith bit his lip to force down his threatening laughter. "Really? That's too bad. If it _had_ been for me, it would have been a really thoughtful and romantic date."

"T-thoughtful, huh?" Lance swallowed thickly, eyes locked on Keith's.

"Yeah," Keith said softly, voice dropped to a low purr. "Good enough to earn a kiss at the very least."

Lance licked his lips, face visibly turning red from the ears in. "A… A ki..."

Keith didn't gave him the chance to finish the thought. "Too bad it was supposed to be for someone else, huh?" He stepped away again, turning away so casually he actually heard Lance fall over behind him.

"I lied!" Lance shouted frantically, scrambling back up. "You were the only person I asked! And if you'd said no I would have just stayed home and split the sandwiches with Hunk while I forced him into an All My Circuits marathon."

Keith finally let himself laugh, stepping back into Lance's personal space. "Why couldn't you just ask me out like a normal person?"

A reluctant shrug. "I knew if I go you to go with me I could get you to have fun, but I was a little worried if I just told you I wanted to date you you'd think I was making a joke or something."

Keith wound his arms around Lance's shoulders, pulling his face close enough to rest their foreheads together. "You're kind of a freak. Next date we go on I'm planning, I'm not sure I can trust you not to lie and take me somewhere weird."

"That's honestly fair," Lance agreed, eyes darting from Keith's eyes down to his lips. "But since we established that tonight was definitely planned for you, does that mean I earned that kiss after all?"

Keith smiled, rising up on his toes to close the last two inches of space separating them. "I said at _least_ that much, didn't I?"


End file.
